Daily Recap — August 18

“I have never seen a thin person drinking a Diet Coke.”

— Donald J. Trump

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WHAT THE HECK?

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I like for my Daily Recaps to serve as a means of providing answers rather than leaving the reader with more questions than with which they came. Unfortunately, questions are all I have for this story.

The remote New Mexico compound that also served as a school-shooter training ground has been partially destroyed, burying in rubble the underground tunnel at the location where the remains of a young boy were found.

Yes, as in the crime scene where a toddler’s remains were found, along with a whole bunch of stuff related to jihad against our country. One would think we’d want to keep it intact for a little while at least.

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I was able to find an answer — somewhat.

The site destruction came about after a court order was released allowing for the seizure of a stolen trailer, which was part of the compound in Amalia. Additionally, that trailer has been torn apart, and ammo and bullets sit in piles around the lot. Property owner Jason Bader confirmed the court order allowing the seizure of a stolen trailer that made up part of the compound.

Since the legacy media won’t do it for anything, let’s take a quick moment to jog our memories on the alleged facts regarding this story. Earlier this month, 11 starving children ranging in age from 1 to 15 were rescued from the compound, which has now been identified as an alleged training ground for young school shooters thanks to the information provided by the children themselves. Kids have been known to tell tall tales, but they usually don’t involve training for jihad. The odds are overwhelmingly high that these kids are telling the truth. And oh yeah, the physical evidence at the scene corroborates their claims, ASSUMING THE EVIDENCE IS STILL INTACT.

Siraj Wahhaj, 39, the father of Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj―the 3-year old toddler that was found dead on the property―was arrested along with four other adults after a note about starving children finally managed to reach authorities, providing just cause to raid the property. As usual, the FBI had been aware of the compound and the shady aura emanating from it, but were impotent — or worse, willfully negligent — to do anything about it.

Prosecutors believe the young boy died during a 7th century Islamic ritual ceremony to cast out demons. The child reportedly suffered from seizures and could not walk due to severe medical issues.

All five adults are each facing 11 counts of felony child abuse for the filthy conditions in which the 11 children were found. The compound reportedly had no electricity, water, or plumbing.

The rescued children were swiftly taken into protective custody, thank God.

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But then, to inject salt into an already horrific wound, far-left activist District Judge Sarah Backus decided to grant bail to three defendants arrested in the compound raid, arguing that prosecutors failed to present any evidence about the children’s health or welfare. She said prosecutors decided to focus on the weaponry at the compound instead.

MAYBE THE WEAPONRY ALONE IS JUSTIFICATION TO KEEP THESE GUYS LOCKED UP, YOU DROOLING IDIOT. DO YOU REALLY NEED CONCRETE PROOF THAT THEY WERE HUNGRY, TOO??

God please save our country from this backwards ideology.

Backus set the defendants’ bail at $20,000 each. Lucas Morton, Subhannah Wahhaj and Hujrah Wahhaj are awaiting a possible release. Siraj Wahhaj will remain in jail pending a warrant for his arrest in Georgia for the abduction and murder of his son. At least they got that one right, I suppose.

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But now, with the partial destruction of the compound, who knows whether Judge Backus will ever get that evidence she apparently seeks. Did the authorities really comb through that entire compound already to the point that bulldozers may be unleashed without harm to the investigation?

There are spent shells all over the place, writings, body armor…..pretty much everything you’d expect to see in a compound designed to train child jihadists. That physical evidence is important. Those ammo shells, for instance, may provide a means of tracking who assisted them in their mission. Or they may not provide much insight at all. They might just be traced back to the local Walmart.

THAT’S WHAT INVESTIGATIONS ARE FOR — TO LEARN ALL THE FACTS.

Bottom line: The Taos County Sheriff’s Department needs to answer some questions, the chief among them being, “Was that compound an active crime scene or was it not?” If so, who the hell authorized a bulldozer in the heart of a fresh crime scene?

If it wasn’t an active crime scene, can the detectives working the case — federal, state and county — vouch for the fact that all physical evidence had been properly gathered from the scene before the authorization was granted?

There’s either some amazing police work happening here or just the opposite. There really isn’t a middle ground.

The TCSD needs to address these questions immediately.

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THE STREAK ENDS

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I did all I could to keep the Daily Recap an Omarosa-free zone. Unfortunately, she’s created sufficient ruckus in the headlines to finally rear her ugly head in this, the most sacred of news spaces.

The latest book-selling gimmick is that Omarosa has as many as 200 audiotapes that she recorded during her brief, drama-filled tenure at the White House. She’s obviously been planning this for a while, as she is releasing them as a slow drip into the news cycle about every other day, which should keep her new book on the bestsellers list for weeks or months to come.

It’s going to be one hell of an annoying time over these next few months.

According to the Associated Press, a source “with direct knowledge of the records” says that Omarosa also has a “stash of video, emails, text messages and other documentation” that support the claims she makes in the book.

In a PBS interview earlier in the week, Omarosa said, “I have a significant amount, in fact, a treasure trove, of multimedia backup for everything that’s not only in “Unhinged,” but everything that I assert about Donald Trump.”

The report did not give an indication of what might be included on the videos, nor which of the accounts in her book they may support. I will save you the suspense though. They’re relatively innocuous recordings of staffers being taken out of context in order for Omarosa to serve red meat to the #Resist movement and sell books.

So far, she’s released tapes of General Kelly firing her; a conversation in which presidential daughter-in-law Lara Trump appears to offer her a lucrative campaign job in exchange for keeping silent about what she saw at the White House; and a phone call from 2016 that appeared to bolster her unconfirmed claim that a tape exists of PDT using the “n-word.” In reality, Omarosa set them up by insinuating that the tape had already been found and then recorded them discussing how to deal with the matter. It’s all underhanded nonsense.

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CAN SHE BE ARRESTED FOR THIS?

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It depends on what we’re talking about.

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As for recording her colleagues, no, that’s not illegal. Only one party needs to consent in her particular case, though the law does vary by state. The recording in the Situation Room is another story.

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This is a bit complicated so bear with me.

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In the intelligence world, we conduct operations in places called SCIFs (Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facility). It’s a fancy term for a restricted area. No electronic devices or any devices in which data may be stored are allowed.

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There are permanent SCIFs, such as the NSA buildings in Ft. Meade, MD and Ft. Gordon, GA. In those SCIFs, she would be unlikely to get unapproved devices inside, and if she did so would be committing a serious security violation. Then there are temporary SCIFs, what we call T-SCIFs. Those are primarily found in combat zones but can also be created within training areas or other places in which classified briefs/operations must be held despite the lack of a permanent site.

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It appears that the Situation Room operates as a sort of T-SCIF, meaning it operates under all the rules of a SCIF while in use but could be used for non-classified activities when sanitized (meaning no classified materials are visible or accessible). When Omarosa recorded General Kelly, the Situation Room appears to have been empty with no classified activities taking place. While the existence of a recording device is certainly a security violation regardless, there is a big difference between recording a non-classified discussion in a room that wasn’t being used as a SCIF at the moment and, say, recording a national security brief. The latter would be easy to prosecute, the former not so much.

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It’s my understanding that the SR has a place in the hallway to put phones and/or other electronic devices. People who have been granted clearance and signed nondisclosure agreements are generally expected to follow protocol before entering. Unfortunately, some idiot thought Omarosa could be trusted within the White House’s most sensitive areas. Frankly, it’s an embarrassment for this administration.

But to answer the question regarding prosecution, no, I doubt it will happen. Unless Omarosa discloses classified information at some point they’ll have a tough time putting together a case for prosecution.

The strongest case the Trump administration seems to have deals with the nondisclosure agreement Omarosa signed upon taking the job. And not just your standard NDA that accompanies security clearances; one specific to working in the Trump administration. Even that is wrought with peril, however, since there are serious legal and constitutional questions surrounding the forced silence of a public employee. Omarosa, as farcical as it may be, was technically a public servant. It’s going to be hard to legally enforce an NDA.

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BIG PICTURE:

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The basic math regarding the Omarosa situation hasn’t changed. She’s on a mission to sell as many books as she can as she rides off into the sunset of irrelevance. The recordings are mostly taken out of context and aimed at creating false narratives, most of which have been debunked already (though the media is doing its best to give them life any way possible).

She likely won’t be prosecuted for it, but she won’t be getting anyone in the Trump administration prosecuted, either.

I am sad to say, though, that she may have a small effect on our numbers. Not because of anything on those tapes, but because she was hired in the first place. Someone like Omarosa has no earthly business in the White House.

Mr. President, forgive my bluntness here, but I don’t care how many “great things” someone says about you. I understand that you value loyalty but anyone with two brain cells knew that Omarose wasn’t trustworthy. There are some folks in the middle who don’t buy into the anti-Trump narrative being pushed by the media, but there is no way to spin a hire like this. It makes you look incompetent. You can’t go around bragging about hiring “the best people” while hiring people like Omarosa. It just doesn’t work.

I love you to death, Mr. President, but this whole thing is a #BigFatMess that was wholly preventable.

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KING BOB ATTACKS HIS STAR WITNESS

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Or who should be his star witness, anyway.

King Bob Mueller has recommended that former Trump campaign staffer George Papadopoulos be sentenced up to six months in prison and face a fine of $9,500, stating in a court filing yesterday that those penalties “are warranted and appropriate” for Papadopoulos’s conduct in lying to federal investigators.

Mueller wrote in the filing that Papadopoulos chose to lie to federal investigators during a voluntary interview and that he “was expressly warned that it is a crime to lie to federal investigators.”

“The defendant knew the questions he was asked by the FBI were important, and he knew his answers were false at the time he gave them. His lies negatively affected the FBI’s Russia investigation, and prevented the FBI from effectively identifying and confronting witnesses in a timely fashion,” the court document states.

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Papadopoulos reached a plea agreement with King Bob’s team last year and is set to be sentenced next month. However, Papadopoulos’s wife, Simona Mangiante, is urging him to break off the deal and stop cooperating with Mueller.

“I trusted the institutions until they proved me wrong,” Mangiante said this week, adding that she had learned of “exculpatory evidences that fully justify him to drop off his plea agreement.”

Hmmmmm….interesting.

The court filing yesterday states that Mueller’s team is “aware that the defendant and his spouse have participated in several additional media interviews concerning his case.”

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That’s ok, King Bob! Remember what happened when Christopher Steele got busted talking to the media while working with the FBI? Just do what you did in that case — have Bruce Ohr step in to be a covert intermediary! Easy peezy Japa-neezy.

Something tells me Papadopoulos will be treated differently, though.

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The filing also pushed back against assertions that Papadopoulos’s wife has made in media interviews, including that he voluntarily said that a professor had told him that Russia had dirt on Hillary.

The document states that FBI agents had to repeatedly press Papadopoulos on the issue, providing specific quotes from the line of questioning.

Below is the complete court filing:

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BIG PICTURE:

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The Papadopoulos case is interesting and important.

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I’m sure you’ll recall that it was GP who the FBI attributed with kicking off the Russia probe. According to the official story, GP was drunkenly bragging in some random bar to some random Australian diplomat that the Russians “had dirt on Hillary.”

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Since GP worked for the Trump campaign at the time, it was supposedly seen as indicative of a possible link between the Russians and the Trump campaign. The problem with that, of course, is we know for a fact that the pee-pee dossier was the primary basis for the bureau’s surveillance of the Trump campaign, which suggests that it was the primary basis for the anti-Trump counterintelligence probe itself.

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To top things off, the narrative about GP speaking to the diplomat entered the public discourse just as we began to learn about the prominent role the dossier played in the investigation of the Trump campaign. It could be coincidental, sure, but it sure reeks of CYA (cover your rear end).

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And when GP’s wife says that exculpatory evidence has come forth, and that her trust in the institutions is gone, to what is she referring? Could it be that GP was on the receiving end of the same entrapment to which others in the campaign have been subjected?

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They’re nailing him to the wall for the same process crime they’re using against others (like Mike Flynn): lying to the FBI. That could be related to the smallest of details, though, and reports suggest that it has absolutely nothing to do with collusion. Could it be that, just as with Flynn, that FBI interview was itself a form of entrapment? If it weren’t entrapment, do we really believe that he would be facing 6 months for a process crime right now?

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Just as with Manafort, the point was never to get at any kind of truth regarding OMG RUSSIAN COLLUSION. The harassment of GP was done in the exactly the same vein as that of Manafort, and for the same reason: an effort to get him not only to sing, but to compose against PDT.

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The more that comes out regarding this investigation, the more it becomes clear that Mueller, the FBI and DOJ have been determined to prosecute crimes whether or not they exist. The point is to bring down the Trump presidency, or at the very least irrevocably harm it.

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Papadopoulos, like Carter Page, was a nobody in the campaign who the Mueller team needs to be a somebody. But he wasn’t. And he wasn’t the genesis of the Russia probe.

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This thing is unraveling more by the day.

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Keep hammering away, PDT. Maybe we can get this accomplished without your having to step in. But if not, oh well. Expose all of it by presidential decree.

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Every. Last. Detail.

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EVIL NEVER TAKES A DAY OFF

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Baker and cake artist Jack Phillips just wants to earn an honest living doing what he’s good at while maintaining a clear conscience. And to the state of Colorado, that’s unconscionable.

Just two months ago, the Supreme Court issued a sharp rebuke to the state of Colorado, condemning its “clear and impermissible hostility” toward Jack and his business, Masterpiece Cakeshop. The court’s ruling established that people like Jack should not be bullied by the government for peacefully living out their religious beliefs.

What a novel concept.

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Unfortunately, despite the Supreme Court’s ruling, the state is once again seeking to use governmental power to compel Jack to use his cake shop as a means of promoting sexual deviance.

This latest anti-Christian crusade — and make no mistake, that’s exactly what this is — began before the first even ended. On June 26, 2017, the very day that the Supreme Court agreed to review Masterpiece, a Colorado attorney called Jack’s store and requested a custom cake with a blue exterior and pink interior in order to celebrate a gender transition from male to female.

It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to guess what happened next. Jack declined the request, because while he will serve all people, he will not create custom cakes that express messages or celebrate events that violate his beliefs. And of course this “attorney” knew exactly what he was doing. He’s said as much himself, as he proudly boasts of suing businesses that allegedly “discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and serving them their just desserts.”

Thus, it’s no surprise that the attorney promptly filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Division (which is charged with investigating complaints for the Colorado Civil Rights Commission). They were all too happy to partner with the attorney in his quest to extend the state’s six-year campaign against Jack. After investigating the complaint for nearly a year, just 24 days after the Supreme Court released its decision in Masterpiece, the division issued a determination letter finding probable cause to believe that Masterpiece Cakeshop had acted unlawfully in declining the attorney’s cake request.

It’s quite astonishing, isn’t it? They use the courts to push things they can’t get support for at the ballot box, and when the courts fail, they just ignore them and push forward anyway. Evil truly never takes a day off.

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BIG PICTURE:

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.Jack now finds himself in the unenviable position of being forced to again defend his basic constitutional right to freely exercise his religious beliefs without governmental interference.

The truly sickening part is Jack is a decent, kind man who offers his services to everyone regardless of background. All he asks is that he not be made to design a cake that explicitly goes against his morality. For example, he doesn’t design custom cakes that celebrate divorce, disparage gays, celebrate Halloween, or contain sexual images or messages. His decisions whether to create particular cakes are never based on the individual requesting them, but rather the message being celebrated.

And yes, he absolutely has this right. This shouldn’t even be up for debate. The SCOTUS just ruled by a 7-2 majority that Jack is operating out of “sincere religious beliefs and convictions,” which he has the constitutional right to do. The court endorsed Jack’s right to freely exercise his religion, and it condemned Colorado for failing in its obligation to religious neutrality.

Nevertheless, here we are again, with Jack in the crosshairs. Colorado officials have made the deliberate choice to target him. The activist attorney who requested the cake made the deliberate choice to request a custom cake with a message that he knew Jack could not in good conscience design.

Fortunately, Jack is no shrinking violet for his faith and is once again willing to take a stand. And once again, he has some good people standing by his side. On Aug. 14, a group called Alliance Defending Freedom filed a lawsuit on Jack’s behalf against the officials with the Colorado Civil Rights Division and Commission.

Of course, that does little to recover what Jack has already lost, which is a great deal. He has faced death threats, been subjected to the vilest verbal attacks imaginable, and lost personal and professional relationships. And the government forced him to stop creating wedding cakes altogether, which cost him 40% of his business. There’s no expectation that this next legal battle will be any less difficult. But still he stands—not just for his freedom, but for yours.

Thank God for men like Jack Phillips who refuse to succumb to the mob. His resilience in the face of great evil will one day pay great dividends.

I’d argue that his courage is already paying great dividends now, as others are being inspired not to sit back and take it anymore. Christians are good people; a fact which many have sought to take advantage. But don’t ever confuse a good nature for weakness.

Throughout history, Christians have shown a willingness to endure whatever earthly pain come their way in the name of Christ. This is no different, and it speaks to the power of Christianity itself.

Good for you, Mr. Phillips. Stay strong; we’ve got your back.

To those who spend their days devising ways to bring down a good man — your day is coming.

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1 thought on “Daily Recap — August 18”

Trey Vaught, I am doing my best to keep my BP down & stay active. Basic logic on my mother board, child abusers & animal abusers, including pedophiles, should be taken out and shot through the head. That includes Roman Catholic Priest’s. These deplorable humans are damaged beyond repair.
You have written awesome recaps, papers that I can keep for my grandson to learn the history & state of our Country. Please know, that I am in the creases of TTC.